How to be a Mermaid (The Cotton Candy Quintet #1)(37)

“Which is?” Levi urged.

“We’re going to make Kai fly,” Nereia answered like it was the most natural thing in the world. And Tara...” She pointed back to me, her smile brilliant. “...Tara is going to be the one to give the potion to him.”

“I can do it,” Finn interjected. “I was so close two nights ago.”

But Levi understood, following Nereia’s logic. He nodded along with Nereia’s plan. “And you failed two nights ago, Protector,” he said. “And failure is not an option again. Not with my son’s life on the line.”

I couldn’t believe my eyes when Finn flinched at the barb.

Levi smirked, satisfied at Finn’s reaction, and turned back to Nereia. “Tell me how this...mermaid...would be able to succeed where our famed protector failed.”

Well, for one, I wouldn’t be there to distract him, I thought sarcastically.

Nereia gave me a knowing smile before she spoke next.

“Little Tara here is a special breed of mermaid. I’m sure Oceanus already knows, but she’s a merwalker. One who can travel between the sea and the world Kai is trapped in.”

Levi and Nadia looked at me, alarmed themselves now at the reveal that I was a merwalker. Great, I thought. Now they think I’m the enemy.

“You can appear human?” Nadia asked.

I nodded. “Yes. I met Kai on the surface. I know exactly where he is. And I can get access to it.”

“She and Kai got along well on the surface,” Nereia added. “And she can help coax Kai to make the jump out to the ocean.”

“Is it a long way for him to fly?” Nadia asked. “Can he make it?”

I opened my mouth, knowing that the quarantine tank was at least eight yards from the edge, and then there were rocks below to worry about. It was an impossible jump. And if he could fly...well, I had no idea how that worked.

“He can,” Finn interrupted. He was frowning, clearly unhappy. “Listen, I can do it.”

“I can’t risk you being caught,” I told him.

His jaw clenched as he watched me.

Heart pounding, I lift my chin just a little bit. I felt my gills open to suck in some water. My mermaid tail kept me righted. Yet at the same time, I was still the human I’d always been.

Now, I was living the real dream. I was in two worlds. And I was going to have to be a part of them continuing forward.

Everything depended on this. Before all this, I never really believed in mermaids. But now, it was time to start believing in myself.

“I’m doing it.”

***

“You don’t have to do this.”

Finn grabbed my arm and spun me around to face him. I swayed, feeling a little disoriented under his intense, sea green gaze.

While Nereia was busy mixing the ingredients together for the potion, I was left trying to prepare for a mission that felt huge and beyond my control.

“I do,” I told him gently.

“This doesn’t affect your world,” he pleaded, searching my gaze.

“It does,” I said. “It affects both of my worlds. Yours and mine. Ours.”

A thousand different emotions crossed his face all at once, from conflict to deep concern.

“I don’t want you getting hurt,” he whispered. “You had nothing to do with this.”

Despite myself, I wanted to laugh. “That’s not what you believed the first time you met me.”

His brow furrowed. “That’s not fair.”

“I know,” I said. “But I have to do this. I promised Kai that I would, and I can’t let this war happen—”

He pressed his lips against mine, giving me another one of his fin-curling kisses. After only four kisses, he was getting better. This time, he explored more of my mouth and held me to him. Like he never wanted to let me go.

I melted into it, my eyes fluttering closed. His arms came around my back and brought me close to him, skin to skin, kissing me like a lover for whom the world is ending.

The kiss lasted a long time.

When he finally did break the kiss, he looked at me intensely, begging with his eyes for me not to follow through with this. He caressed the side of my face, making my skin tingle with his feathery touch.

“Don’t go,” he whispered.

“It makes sense, Finn,” I appealed to him. “I know where he is, I won’t get caught.”

“It’s my job, Tara.”

I searched those sea green eyes, glad that I had someone who cared deeply about me. “And I would never forgive myself if someone found you. You would turn into a spectacle for humans. They’d cage you. Dissect you. And the news would descend on you like a pack of sharks.”

His brow furrowed, and I realized that he didn’t know what the news was. I chuckled lightly.

“They would expose you and this world,” I continued, indicating the broad expanse of Thalassa. “You’d never get any rest. It’s too big of a risk for you.”

The muscle in his jaw clenched and unclenched, and I could sense that I wasn’t going to be able to make him see my point.

“And if you fail, Levi would attack the surface.”

I shook my head. “I won’t fail.”

“How do you know?” he demanded.

I allowed myself a grin. “Because I can pretend to be a better human than a mermaid.”